How about this for a flashback? In May of 2005, USA Today ranked the position of Yankees G.M. as the 7th worst job to have in all sports, overall. In the feature, they posted a nice timeline of Yankees G.M.’s since 1973 (when Big Stein bought the team). Here it is, with the Cashman line updated by me:

1973 Lee MacPhail, GM Holdover from Michael Burke/CBS era.

1974-77 Gabe Paul, president Architect of 1977-78 championship teams.

1978-79 Al Rosen, president, and Cedric Tallis, vice president/GM Add Bob Lemon, with an asterisk. In July 1978, Steinbrenner announced manager Lemon would succeed Tallis as GM in 1980 when Billy Martin returned to the dugout. When Martin came back early (June 1979), Lemon held the GM title without the power for five months.

1980 Gene Michael, vice president/GM Stepped down to become manager in 1981.

Now, I would agree, in the 1980’s, it was no fun being the Yankees G.M. – for sure. But, today? I would suggest that things have changed – especially since, say, 2006 or 2007, with “The Boss” being out of the picture. In fact, I would bet that most of the G.M.’s in baseball would love a chance to be in charge of the Yankees and be able to operate with a payroll that’s in the ballpark of $200 million each season.

So, that’s leads to this question: Is the position of “Yankees G.M.” now one of the ten best in all of sports to have? What do you think?